+ Dom Jeremias

Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchy

in South America

A Greek-Orthodox Christian born on 18 January 1942 in Egypt, Vassula Ryden, by following her husband in his professional duties, spent most of her life in poor and less developed countries. It was in Bangladesh, in 1985, that she had her first unexpected ‘divine revelation’. This revelation started her mystical communication, which lasted until her death, on 25 September 2024, and she always confidently gave witness to the revelations she received.

By way of introduction, we need to consider four questions: (1) What is the origin of the revelations? The origin of the revelations turns out to be God Himself. (2) What is the content of the messages she received? They are words of wise teaching of God’s will, that is, they are essentially biblical messages. (3) For what purpose was the content revealed to her? God revealed this content to her so that she could transmit it to His people; so that all might know His will. So that everyone may lead a TRUE LIFE IN GOD, which is the title of the messages. (4) What do theologians say? Enthusiastically, several theologians, as well as renowned priests, analyzed the messages transmitted to the people by Vassula and concluded that they are in accordance with both the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church. Therefore, they found no heresy or disharmony between the messages published by the Greek-Orthodox lady and the content of the Christian faith.

There is no doubt that God has given Vassula the grace of Prophecy, transmitting His word to her. God, who is infinitely merciful, always has compassion for all humanity and wants every human being to be saved. Just as He had called the Prophets, then the disciples, and made them capable of fulfilling their mission, God also called and sent Vassula. She had received no theological nor even catechetical instruction, but God taught her everything necessary to live a true life in God and to transmit this content and experience to today’s world. The language used by Vassula in transmitting the messages she receives is similar to the language of the prophets of the Old Testament, which sometimes makes the task of interpretation challenging.

The global context into which Vassula was sent to prophesy presents us with a worrisome picture. In order to describe the global scenario very briefly, one must mention a restless society in which almost everyone is worried and overly busy, excessively full of information and unconsciously stressed-out. Some of the problems most highlighted by Vassula were the divisions among Christians and the scarcity of interreligious dialogue. In addition, we can observe mutual intolerance, religious fundamentalism, wars, corruption, growing banditry, terrorism, heinous crimes even within families, the destruction of the environment that is everyone’s home, exasperated materialism, the loss of the meaning of human life and its perennial values. It is an apostasy put into practice unconsciously even by many who consider themselves Christians. In short, it is a predominantly godless world heading towards self-destruction.

In 1986, God promised Vassula that His message, with His help, would go around the world. The Lord asked her to ‘be like a loud book, a book written by the Triune God’ (TLIG, 25/09/1997). She fulfilled her prophetic mission. Vassula was a prophetess not only because she was invited to 86 countries and participated in 1,174 meetings, nor only because the books with the messages were translated into more than 42 languages, but mainly because she transmitted the Words of the Lord during all her contacts with the people of God. To today’s world, she received and transmitted the following messages: ‘those who have ears, let them hear’ (TLIG, 04/12/1989); ‘I come to tell you that the God you have forgotten has never forgotten you’ (TLIG, 18/12/1994). For almost 40 years, through Vassula, God has been trying to awaken in all humanity a true understanding and conversion. He has reminded us of many things that were said in the past through the Holy Scriptures, by the Holy Prophets and in His own Commandments. Through her, God has warned the world about its self-destruction if it continues in its apostasy, that is, living without Him and without observing His precepts. The divine messages of ‘ True Life in God’ are an urgent call to make peace with God and amend our lives through repentance. They are a call to reconciliation, to the practice of charity and to unity.

The authenticity of Vassula’s prophetic action is also evident in her taking seriously the biblical message that ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:17). She has always acted with the conviction that true faith is not merely an intellectual or verbal belief, but must produce a change in the believer’s life and manifest itself in good works, which are the concrete expression and witness of that faith. After experiencing the presence of the Mother of God in a vision, Vassula was invited by our Holy Mother to reach out to the needy and feed the poor, since spiritual food is not enough. Since then, many charity houses called ‘Beth Myriam’ (House of Mary) have begun to operate to feed the poor. These houses are evolving to also have schools for poor children. There are now many of them all over the world.

It is also important to mention that throughout her prophetic activity, Vassula has not received any payment or personal financial benefits for her efforts.

Vassula is also a symbol of unity. Given that she conveyed an essentially Christian message, she had the appeal to unity as her main subject. The prophetess persistently sought the unity of Christians of all denominations through the messages received from Jesus Christ. She herself stated that such unity is a core message of True Life in God.

In conclusion, the truer our life in God is, the more capable we will be of promoting peace, unity, and human and spiritual well-being in the world.